1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates generally to airline ticketing and pricing procedures. Particularly, the present invention comprehends a system and method for categorizing airline passengers who travel with and without baggage and unbundling the baggage costs associated with the airfare to encourage separate parcel service use.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the aftermath of 9/11 terrorist attacks that exposed the need for greater security in the air transportation industry, Congress passed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (TSA). The Act authorized security fees of up to $10 per round trip per passenger with the fees to be used to generate funds to enhance security of air travel through better screening of all passengers and bags. To meet the security mandates, TSA has invested billions in better-trained security agents and expensive metal and bomb detecting equipment for passengers and bags at airport check points.
While air travel security has improved, it falls short of addressing a major source for the security problems and the associated cost—the bags transported by the airlines. A security fee based on passengers alone has similar shortcomings as current airline fare structure fails to recognize the difference between passengers with and without bags. The current system does not create incentive-based choices for passengers to limit the baggage they carry. Consequently, existing baggage practices add to both security risks and costs of air travel.
Existing practices do little to influence the demand for baggage screening. Instead, both TSA and airlines are focused largely on screening and transporting an unconstrained supply of baggage associated with passengers. The failure to distinguish the cost of transporting passengers with and without bags is costing the industry billions in un-recovered expenses and exacerbating security gaps in baggage transport. Furthermore, it fails to discourage travelers from bringing on flights a maximum number of bags. This, in turn, causes the aircraft weight and balance calculation to be overly-conservative in that these calculations are based on baggage average weight. In other words, the disinclination of transporting baggage is a necessity in light of both cost and safety concerns involving the weight and number of bags.
With about 1.5 billion bags transported yearly by the domestic US airlines, it is evident that the airline pricing systems are not supported by the internal cost structure and there are compelling weight and security reasons to consider baggage-handling costs into airfare pricing. Accordingly, there is need for a solution that reduces demand for baggage screening, curbs airline losses, heightens the efficiency of bagging handling, and enhances the overall travel experience.
Methods for automating baggage location determination and other handling procedures within the airport terminal are known in the art. Furthermore and more recently, very general procedures for decoupling baggage from air travel have been developed. In this manner, one class of transportation carries the luggage, while another class carries the passengers. However, although the prior art encompasses the use of separate parcel services, it does not account for price variation in a method that provides different pricing options whether or not a separate parcel service is elected. Particularly, the prior art is only geared towards separating luggage from passengers and not accounting for a price variation if different luggage options are chosen. In the present method pricing matrices display a framework of fees, and methods of fare fluctuation are provided in combination with a network based means for unbundling the baggage costs from the typical base airfare.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,793,639 to Yamazaki shows a method for coordinating baggage information with security check results. U.S. Pat. No. 5,866,888 teaches the known method of using bar code technology to identify and track travelers' luggage. U.S. Pat. No. 6,594,547 to Manabe et al. is a baggage managing system for removing already-loaded baggage from an airplane if a passenger fails to board the plane. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,711,463 to Tozuka et al. teaches managing a delivery destination of a baggage by acquiring and coordinating identification and boarding status of passengers. Publication Nos. US 2003/0061085 to Lanigan; US 2003/0100973 to Quackenbush et al.; US 2003/0120510 to Panek; US 2003/0154087 to Lewenstein and WO 03/065166 to Pandya generally teach the concept of decoupling passenger baggage so that the baggage may travel in a different way than the passenger. The passenger may make a conventional reservation, but the customer also provides special instructions on when and where to pick up the baggage and where to deliver it.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method which accounts for a price variation in the airfare when a separate parcel service is used, and which provides alternative options in terms of price even if the separate parcel service is not used, thereby providing an incentive, priced-based choice to passengers when it comes to traveling with luggage. In addition, there is a need for the standardization of shape and size of bags that passengers bring to airport (carry-on and checked-in) with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags manufactured to specifications established by TSA and the airline industry.